1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital signal recording apparatus and a digital signal reproducing apparatus for recording/reproducing data to/from a digital signal record medium such as a magnetic optical disc. In addition, the present invention relates to a remote controlling apparatus for the digital signal recording apparatus and the digital signal reproducing apparatus and a controlling method for management information thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
A magnetic optical disc apparatus that records a music program and so forth on a magnetic optical disc such as a MD (Mini Disc, registered trademark) is known. A U-TOC (User Table Of Content) area for managing information such as record position, record date/time, and title name concerned with a recorded program is formed in the inner periphery of such a magnetic optical disc. The U-TOC area is structured as pages. In other words, the U-TOC area has a plurality of sectors. Next, an example of the structure of the U-TOC area will be described.
The U-TOC area is composed of for example 36 sectors. Sector 0 is used to manage start/end addresses of a main program recorded on the magnetic optical disc and start/end addresses of a recordable area thereof. Sector 1 is used to manage a title name of a main program recorded on the magnetic optical disc and a title name of the magnetic optical disc. When audio data is recorded on the magnetic optical disc, a title name is a program name. In addition, a title name of the magnetic optical disc is an album name or a performer""s name.
Sector 2 is used to manage record date/time of a program. Sector 4 is used to manage Kanji characters, Hiragana characters, and Katakana characters (these are all Japanese character formats) corresponding to the title name (English characters) of Sector 1. Sectors 3 and 5 to 36 are reserved for future expansions.
Before a program recorded on the magnetic optical disc is reproduced, information is reproduced from the U-TOC area. The reproduced information is stored in a predetermined storing means such as a DRAM of the apparatus in such a manner that the reproduced information correlates with each program recorded on the magnetic optical disc. When a desired program is reproduced, a title corresponding thereto is read from the memory and displayed on a displaying portion.
Since such a conventional magnetic optical disc apparatus has only one character input field on its displaying portion so as to display character information such as a title name and an artist name concerned with a program to be reproduced, both character information recorded in sector 1 of the U-TOC area and character information recorded in sector 4 of the U-TOC cannot be set at a time.
In particular, since the character information recorded in sector 1 of the U-TOC area correlates with the character information recorded in sector 4 (in other words, the relation of original information and translated information such as English (alphabetic characters) and Japanese (Katakana characters), when the title name display area is narrow, similar information should be redundantly input. Thus, such an apparatus is inconvenient for the user.
In the conventional magnetic optical disc apparatus, a title name is read from sector 1 or sector 4 of the U-TOC area corresponding to a mode that has been set by the user and displayed with a font that has been selected by the user. For example, the user can more easily see a title name displayed on the displaying portion in the native language (for example, Japanese) than a foreign language (for example, English). In addition, when an European/American music program is reproduced, the program title is displayed in English. Thus, when alphabetic characters recorded in sector 1 are displayed, Japanese characters such as Kanji characters, Hiragana characters, and Katakana characters recorded in sector 4 are not displayed. In other words, advantages (such as a variety of fonts) of the apparatus cannot be effectively used.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a digital audio signal recording apparatus that allows character information such as titles of individual programs to be displayed and input in a plurality of character formats (for example, Hiragana characters, Kanji characters, and alphabetic characters). Another object of the present invention is to provide a digital audio signal recording apparatus and a reproducing apparatus thereof that allow character information to be displayed in a plurality of character formats in the reproducing mode and the like.
A first aspect of the present invention is a digital signal recording apparatus, comprising a recording means for rewriting programs and character symbols recorded on a record medium having a program area for recording programs and a management area for managing a plurality of character symbols corresponding to the programs, an operating means for allowing the plurality of character symbols to be input when the character symbols are rewritten by the recording means, a displaying means having a display field corresponding to the plurality of character symbols that are input by the operating means, and a controlling means for causing the recording means to record the plurality of character symbols that are input by the operating means to the management area in such a manner that the plurality of character symbols correlate with the programs.
A second aspect of the present invention is a digital signal reproducing apparatus, comprising a reproducing means for reproducing programs and character symbols from a record medium having a program area for recording programs and a management area for managing a plurality of character symbols corresponding to the programs, a storing means for storing the plurality of character symbols in such a manner that the plurality of character symbols correlate with the programs, and a displaying means having a display field corresponding to the plurality of character symbols that are recorded to the recording means.
A third aspect of the present invention is a remote controlling apparatus, comprising an operating means for inputting a plurality of character symbols that are transmitted to a unit to be controlled, a displaying means having a display field corresponding to the plurality of character symbols that are input by the operating means, a storing means for storing the plurality of character symbols that are input by the operating means, and a transmitting means for transmitting the plurality of character symbols stored in the storing means to the unit to be controlled along with an identifier that represents the unit to be controlled.
A fourth aspect of the present invention is a digital signal recording method, comprising the steps of (a) recording programs and character symbols to a record medium having a program area for recording programs and a management area for managing a plurality of character symbols corresponding to the programs, (b) inputting the plurality of character symbols recorded at step (a), and (c) displaying the plurality of character symbols that are input at step (b) on a predetermined display field.
A fifth aspect of the present invention is a digital signal reproducing method, comprising the steps of (a) reproducing programs and character symbols from a record medium having a program area for recording programs and a management area for managing a plurality of character symbols corresponding to the programs, (b) storing the plurality of character symbols in such a manner that the plurality of character symbols correlate with the programs, and (c) displaying the plurality of character symbols that are recorded at step (b) to a display field.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent in light of the following detailed description of a best mode embodiment thereof, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.